As multinational food giants become more and more “rolled” in new products, Nestle China has also played a new trick.
Snack generation: Recently, the world’s largest food company launched a new emulsified medlar powder “Nestle medlar” at the official overseas flagship store of an e-commerce. In particular, this new product uses Chinese wolfberry, a traditional ingredient familiar to Chinese consumers. But its processing method is less common, using Nestle’s “patented emulsification” technology.
What is more interesting is that xiaoshidai learned from Nestle that this new product is operated by the innovation incubator team set up by Nestle in China in early 2018. According to the positioning, the incubator is mainly to find the “blank field” of Nestle’s business, quickly respond to the needs of the Chinese market and develop new products.
Qu Xiangming, chief marketing officer of Nestle Greater China
“Since its establishment in 2018, the innovation incubator has launched a total of 7 new brands and more than 30 products according to the needs of the Chinese market. After early incubation, many brands have successfully integrated into other business divisions or operated independently, such as plant-based brand delicacies.” Qu Xiangming, chief marketing officer of Nestle Greater China, released the latest “report card” to the snack generation today.
He also said that since 2021, Nestle China innovation incubator has entered the “2.0 era”, which has been optimized from category selection to incubation operation mode. Nestle milk wolfberry launched this time is the latest example under the “incubation 2.0 mode”.
We might as well pay close attention to the trend of this food giant in localization innovation.
“Black technology”
Let’s take a look at this new medlar freeze-dried powder with a little “black technology”.
Xiaoshidai learned that the Nestle milk wolfberry on the market is “emulsified wolfberry” produced through innovative food processing technology. According to the ingredient label, this milk wolfberry solid beverage has only three ingredients: wolfberry, milk powder and vitamin E.
“The emulsification technology mentioned here means that milk and Lycium barbarum adopt the method of melting extraction, rather than the traditional extraction method. Through this technology, the bioavailability of beneficial components in Lycium barbarum can be improved.” Qu Xiangming told xiaoshidai that compared with the traditional method of soaking in water or stewing, “emulsified medlar” can more fully release the nutrition of medlar.
New product “milk Qi”
launched by Nestle China Innovation Incubator
Nestle Nestle China’s product technology and formula were developed by the local innovation team of Nestle China research and development center, and nutrition science is jointly undertaken by Nestle Research Center, and its China branch team, based in Lausanne, Switzerland, he said.
Nestle Nestle Research and development center has made clinical trials on immune protection related to the technology of emulsified wolfberry, and has made an experimental study on the mechanism. The results are published in international scientific journals. Based on these research results, Nestle incubator and Nestle Hongkong co operated the “milk Qi”, which was developed by COVID-19. Products. ” Qu Xiangming said.
He described it as a “story of the integration of Nestle’s scientific research and Chinese traditional diet wisdom”.
Xiaoshidai noted that at present, many Nestle products in China have used traditional ingredients with Chinese characteristics in their formulas, such as Nestle yiyangfuyi, neskino, Youmai, etc.
Nestle neskino
In the future, this is also one of the new product R & D directions of Nestle China. “The concept of Chinese traditional food ingredients and homology of medicine and food is widely recognized by Chinese consumers. Combined with Nestle’s advanced product R & D technology, we believe that this direction has the opportunity to provide consumers with more choices of nutritional and health products.” Qu Xiangming said.
In fact, in the Chinese market, more and more multinational food giants have begun to explore opportunities for local food materials to meet the popular “national trend” in recent years and the new trend of “health preservation trend” for young people.
For example, the snack generation introduced that “Quaker” of PepsiCo and “pan Gaoshou” of Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group jointly launched Hericium erinaceus oatmeal and donkey hide gelatin oatmeal products last year. In PepsiCo’s view, the innovation of brewing products combined with Chinese traditional nourishing ingredients will be an opportunity. According to the data from cbndata and online e-commerce, in the Chinese market, the product sales of “traditional ingredients and new eating methods” are increasing year by year.
Incubator 2.0
It is worth noting that in order to improve the success rate of new products, many Nestle new products, including “milk Qi”, are not managed by Nestle’s business departments that already have many core brands in the early cultivation stage, but are handled by Nestle’s China Innovation Incubator team.
Snack generation introduced that after the United States, China is Nestle’s second ad hoc incubator to accelerate the innovation market. Qu Xiangming pointed out to xiaoshidai today that compared with other business divisions, the idea of incubator operating new products is closer to start-ups: focusing on the needs of the Chinese market, bold attempt, rapid learning, rapid iteration and optimization.
“After the new products reach a certain scale, we usually integrate them into the existing business unit to optimize efficiency and promote growth. Of course, we will also depend on the new product category and the specific situation of the business unit.” He said.
Plant based brand delicacies incubated by Nestle China Innovation Incubator
Since 2021, Nestle China innovation incubator has entered the “2.0 era”.
“We have optimized our business model from category selection to incubation.” Qu Xiangming said that on the whole, the incubator focuses more on the “category track with rapid change and high growth in China’s local market”. Through a more flexible operation mode, it integrates Nestle’s internal and external resources to realize the rapid landing of new brands and products. At the same time, according to different product characteristics, select more appropriate and flexible sales channels to achieve high-speed growth.
“Milkberry is a good example of hatching 2.0 mode.” He told xiaoshidai, “we tap the excellent technologies and formulas of internal R & D reserves, quickly integrate Nestle Hong Kong team and cross-border e-commerce channel resources, and it took only 8 months from project initiation to listing. In the future, we will carry out rapid product iterative optimization and channel expansion according to market performance and consumer feedback.”
Xiaoshidai learned that at present, this new product is sold offline in Hong Kong, China, and introduced into the mainland market through the cross-border channel of Nestle’s overseas flagship store. Qu Xiangming said that through the “water test” of this listing, there will be an opportunity to expand “milk Qi” to a broader global market and channel in the future.
New product “milk Qi”
launched by Nestle China Innovation Incubator
At present, this incubator is targeting the growth opportunities brought by new consumer demand of different ages.
Qu Xiangming revealed to the snack generation today that in 2022, in addition to continuing to iterate and optimize the new brands released and listed this year, Nestle incubator will explore the “new consumption” categories that better meet the needs of Chinese young people, hoping to provide consumers with more high-end and healthy products through Nestle’s advantageous resources.
“On the other hand, according to the demographic changes in the Chinese market, providing a variety of solutions for ‘healthy aging’ will also be one of the focuses of our incubator team in 2022.” Qu Xiangming said.
He said that it is expected that in the next year, Nestle China Innovation Incubator team will choose “several potential tracks” for new product incubation, and timely adjust and optimize according to real-time market sales performance, consumer and channel feedback.
“We have clear internal evaluation criteria, evaluate each project in stages and formulate the next operation direction.” Qu Xiangming said that at the same time, Nestle is also actively exploring cooperation with external resources to further empower future incubation projects.
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